Colonial Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 17 July 1952.

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Photo of Mr Roland Robinson Mr Roland Robinson , Blackpool South 12:00, 17 July 1952

I should be delighted to join forces with the hon. Gentleman to find a solution. Perhaps the real solution is to bring about an improvement in trade between Canada and the West Indies. We should liberalise this trade. For years there has been a great deal of mutual good will between Canada and the West Indies. We had expanding markets in both areas. It seems to me natural that a reciprocal trade between the two should flourish.

Canada has been a great market for West Indian sugar. It has taken almost all its requirements from there. But now, because Canada cannot get the trade it wants in the West Indies and has to develop other markets, the Canadian market is being opened to non-Commonwealth sugar. It is a big trade, and I hope the Government will consider liberalising the trade so that there is the work to make these shipping lines pay.

I understand that the Colonial Office are considering the matter and that consultations are now going on between the Colonial Office and the local governments in the West Indies in conjunction with the Ministry of Transport. I urge that this matter should not be overlooked, because it is of first-class importance to the general economy and well-being of the West Indies. I hope at the same time that we can develop still better services between the West Indies and this country, especially in the matter of refrigeration ships to bring fruit from the West Indies to this country. Here may be a first-class opportunity for the Colonial Development Corporation to make a really valuable contribution which would have its repercussions all the way round the islands and so improve the general economy.

Quite apart from transporting these articles, there is some fear with regard to competition from the United States. It is true to say that the United States is subsidising a large number of its exports of citrus products in competition with the West Indies. The West Indies do not like it, and I know a great many people there who would like our Government to invoke the terms of G.A.T.T. and ask the United States for a discussion on this matter, with a view to doing away with the subsidy. I hope that whatever happens the Americans will not feel so happy behind a subsidy that they will ask for still more, for that would be cutting their own throats by upsetting the West Indian economy and creating the necessity for financial aid. It seems to me that the most sensible way to approach this problem is to encourage a normal and natural trade.

I hope that in the development of the West Indies the Government will pay a great deal of attention to the need to improve the rice industry. I know that some steps are being taken in British Guiana, and I know, too, that for a long time negotiations have been going on between the Colonial Development Corporation and the local Government there with regard to the C.D.C.'s rice plans. Indeed, the Secretary of State for the Colonies mentioned it in answer to a Question of mine on 14th November last year. Negotiations have been going on, I believe, for over a year. Can we not try to do something to bring them to fruition, because while the talk is going on the needs of the people are growing every day?

I do not want to say much about the Colonial Development Corporation. I hope it works well. I believe it has a great and important function. It has a wide range of interests with 53 projects in hand at the present time. When I spoke of this last time, I said that I believed that the Colonial Development Corporation should be organised on a functional basis. A first-class agricultural man, supported by people who understand agriculture, can supervise the agricultural projects in different parts of the world. The Corporation should have advice on forestry from a forestry expert, on housing from a housing expert and so on, all the way through the great range of projects.

It seems to me that in the development of these plans today Lord Reith is tending more and more to develop them on a regional basis. He now has a number of regional controllers who, in any given area, may be responsible for agriculture, animal products, factories, fisheries, forestry, hotels, minerals, works and other services. What a wide range of things, and what a magnificent man of great power and ability there must be to be able to understand every one of these different problems. How in the world has Lord Reith found these wonderful people? I am sure that industry would have been willing to offer tremendous rewards to men who could handle this great range of subjects.

Surely that is the wrong way to do it. Let us have each function controlled by its own proper head. Do not let us lose control in the regions. Do not let us lose contact with the regions, but let the man who really understands it do the job. It is too much to ask any man to handle so many different projects of a kind that he cannot possibly understand. That may be a reason for the lack of success in some of these projects. If the work is done through a regional controller he has to have functional men under him and it seems to me that we are only building up our expense, because we are having to keep half a dozen development corporations, one in each area, under review. I do not think that is the best way to do it. Let us make the organisation a functional one.

I emphasise that it is important that we should not confuse colonial development and welfare with the Colonial Development Corporation. The Colonial Office should see that certain services are provided by the C.D.W. I think it is wrong for such essential services as roads, airstrips and communications to be charged up to any one of the individual projects of the Colonial Development Corporation.

The work of the Colonial Development Corporation will have my fullest support. I am a firm believer in the immense resources of the British Colonial Empire, and if we tackle these problems with courage and conviction, I think we shall play a great part in producing new wealth which can offer economic security to this country and can give to the people of the Colonies good wages and a really high standard of living.